Translate

Author: Henry Tan

I'm the chairperson of the Henrusian Mascot Association (HRSMA) and a news anchor of HRSMA TV, the flagship media broadcasting branch of the HRSMA-HNBC Media Publicity Centre. I love mascots and I would like to spread the mascot culture and fandom to the world! I play classical pieces on the piano and also compose music during my free time. It's also my hobby too. My mission is not only to spread the recognition of classical music, but also to let mascots gain recognition globally as a universal symbol of fun and joy!

Bernie is a unique blob monster who is just looking for a place to nom and take a good nap. He’s also a good bedtime companion that perfectly complements the other, cute and super adorable mascot plushes! The result? Absolute cuteness to the maximum. *faint out of cuteness overload* Awwwww my god I can perfectly imagine how cuddly and happy he will be. So chubby like our Borobi 😃😃😃😃 Would you want a plush toy of Bernie for yourself? I want one! Everyone needs a monster in their lives, whether how weird it can be.

Now, as Budsies need to know the minimum threshold of the product so to keep the price of the plush toys affordable, Bernie’s father Aerick Hood will have to sell at least 100 of the super adorable Bernie plushes by next Tuesday (22/8/17 in the USA, 23/8/17 in Singapore). If he successfully sells 100 Bernie plushes, the plush toy will officialy have it’s very own toyline! So preorder now, and you will soon see Bernie being featured as a toyline forever! Get one super soft and adorable (soon-to-be HRSMA RSFTM) Bernie today! Oh god he’s sooooo adorable 😍😍😍😍😍 I’m going to get one now. *🏃💨💨💨*

Like Clyde, Glasgow 2014 CWG’s thistle mascot, stayed to become Team Scotland’s mascot. So we hope that they can be remembered, preserved and can be seen again even after sport events are over, by being mascots of other things, like sport teams, skiing resorts, beaches, department stores, or provinces.

Yes, even though there are newer mascots being announced in more upcoming sport events, we still want them. Who knows “mascots” in the future would look like? Like something else that looks so unattractive?Something really weird, or?

I may be dramatising and exaggerating, but we just want the mascots of 2018, and all upcoming sport events, to stay and be preserved, so that they can be seen by people from our upcoming generations, forever.

Awwwww Zabby (Zabivaka)….. U r so cute. That’s the wolf representing the 2018 FIFA World Cup which will be held in Russia. So adorable right? We love him. But there is this one big problem.

The announcement of that Zabivaka is the official mascot of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia gave rise to pictures that equals to Zabivaka pornography, where he is depicted in the nude, showing his penis being in an erection, or him ejaculating while masturbating his soccer ball.

This is totally unacceptable and insane because this behaviour is highly degratory towards the creator of Zabivaka, the FIFA World Cup, Russia and the mascot culture. In response, the Russian Embassy from the United Kingdom tweeted about it and begged to stop the spreading of these shameful pics.

“Please stop making porn of Zabivaka the Wolf. Russia is begging you.”

Adapted from a tweet by the Russian Embassy in the UK.

We at HRSMA shall not condone such activities as this is a direct challenge to all of our beliefs, especially the reputation of the host nation Russia. In agreement with the Chairperson, we’ve decided to start a campaign on the social networks with the hashtag #StopZabivakaPorn in order to increase the awareness of this ugly event.

Mascots bring fun and joy to the people and makes us more open to the world. Not for pornography.

Congrats to Bernie for being chosen to have his very own toyline! We are so proud of him! Until he has a patent, he is yet to be be considered a mascot by HRSMA.

As he is chosen, Budsies has given Bernie’s dad Aerick Hood 2 weeks to sell 100 Bernie plush toys to prove the proposed toy line’s successfulness. If thr goal is reached, Budsies will proceed with the toyline!

I have great faith in Bernie. He has potential to also become a mascot, while being the protagonist in Aerick Hood’s “The Land of Monsters” comics. When successful, he will be very popular among the young and old (and the not-so-young people). Go Bernie!

To all mascot lovers of HRSMA! Let’s vote for Bernie to let him be worthy of having his own toy line! Omg I’m very excited. To vote, please go to Budsies’ FB Page and give a ‘Heart’ react to the picture! Ok, he is so cute and adorable, and we think he should be enlisted and recognised as a FTM (First-Timer Mascot) of HRSMA! How amazing is that?

First school mascot to be listed under HRSMA’S Active Mascot Promotion list! How much have we ever noticed that he possesses the energy founded in mascots of major sporting events (the Olympics, CWG)? He is the perfect “best of both worlds”! What do you think? He’s perfect. Very soon, he will be the first school mascot to be in HRSMA! Oh my gosh this is exciting!

For a school mascot with the energy, enthusiasm and standard of an CWG and Olympic mascot, I would credit Aubie for this. He caught our attention when we noticed that there is even a mascot chapionship in the US! And he won 9 times in the UCA? That is amazing. I’m speechless. That’s it. We are enrolling him to HRSMA. Spread the news, people!

It turns out that not only our Henrusia is the unique mascot-loving (to the point of complete madness) nation, but then here, we have Japan. In the face of an army of cartoon characters, some Japanese officials are concerned the public is facing a cuteness overload.

Mascots in Japan, known locally as yuru-kyara (Japanese: ゆるキャラ, “loose” or “relaxed” characters), are ubiquitous, and are used to promote everything from soap, food and train lines, to regions of Japan and even prisons. They come in every conceivable shape and size, including some downright bizarre creations, and are often conceived of and designed by amateurs, a fact that is often all too apparent.

But despite the oftentimes amateur nature of some of these beloved characters, it’s safe to say that Japan is truly enamored — or obsessed, to quote one editorial — with these guys.

Noriko Nakano of the Japan Local Character Association said that the Japanese have a long-lasting, deep emotional bond to “non-human” characters, with roots buried deep in an ancient polytheism.

With these noble antecedents, a generation of cute characters, with names like Hikonyan and Barysan were born.

“In an era when local governments are in need, (many have) considered a strategy of including emotional warmth and therefore creating ‘local characters’,” Nakano said. “I had noticed that, for selling local products, it isn’t possible to increase the name recognition (if) there is no ‘face’ to the municipality.”

Bona fide celebrity

Hence the rise of the regional characters, some of whose fame has spread far beyond their territorial boundaries.

You don’t, for example, need to go to Kumamoto Prefecture to bump into Kumamon. The Japanese region’s mascot is a bona fide celebrity throughout the country, and appears on everything from promotional posters advertising his home prefecture and household goods like chopstick holders, to a 100 million-yen ($982,000) gold figurine, made by a Tokyo goldsmith.

Kumamon is the current undisputed king of the mascots, as his YouTube offerings make clear. He’s also the most visual symbol of the character wars that Japan’s prefectures — akin to states — are involved in.

Osaka is no exception. Perhaps surprisingly for the city that was the gritty inspiration for “Blade Runner,” Japan’s second city is as cute-obsessed as the rest of the country, if not more so, with some 45 Osaka-themed mascots plying their trade in the city.

But this town might not be big enough for all of them. According to the Osaka’s local government, some of the city’s cartoon representatives may be stepping out of the limelight, sidelined in favor of the chosen one, the city’s Moppi, as Osaka’s “core mascot.”

“The prefecture has too many mascots,” the Asahi Shimbun quoted Osaka Governor Ichiro Matsui as saying. “People do not know what they are promoting or what policy they are trying to raise awareness of.”

Used sparingly

Overkill and dilution of brand identity has meant that other stalwarts of the city, such as the kushiyaki-inspired Kushitan, designed to resemble a deep-fried Osaka delicacy, may soon be surplus to requirements. While the plan is not to kill the characters off — such barbarism is clearly beyond the pale — they will from now be used only sparingly, if at all.

Instead, the focus is being put on the narrow, bird-like shoulders of Moppi, who designed in the 1990s to resemble one of the prefecture’s native avian species. There are plans to work on the Moppi brand, perhaps pairing him up with a Mrs. Moppi, and even having the lovebirds produce offspring. These characters, officials say, can help promote women’s and childrens’ issues.

Not everybody is in favor of the cull, including the prefecture’s vice governor, who said “respective departments devoted their energy to creating their mascots, and each mascot has been loved by department officials… I hope such situations will be taken into consideration.”

However, while there are dissenting voices, the benefits of honing one’s yuru-kyara image to one or two distinctive faces makes sense, especially in modern Japan’s crowded mascot marketplace.

Well, we do share quite something similar to Japan! Wow. Never knew Japan also experience a mascot madness just like us. Maybe we can also enlist Japanese mascots to HRSMA, eh? What do you think?

Happy 15th anniversary! Happens to be the same age as the Chairperson here. 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 Anyway, give Zabivaka your best gift by clicking here, or take a picture with a Zabivaka plush toy and send it to his Facebook page or below this post!

The Chairperson has granted us permission to use his picture as a birthday gift for Zabivaka. Here it is:

1/5/2017, left 5 months 30 days to the Henrusian YOM(Year of Mascots).

Hey! How have you all been? Do you know Zabivaka? Well, he is the anthropomorphic football-playing wolf mascot for the Russian 2018 FIFA World Cup! He looks cool with his goggles(and his 😉), but when we saw his costume, his goggles looked more like eye masks 😂😂😂. Nevertheless, we thought that Zabivaka is:

Yes, he’s really fluffy;

he’s adorable;

and he is also a great dancer too!

“Honestly, I hope that Zabivaka, along with Borobi and Soohorang, will join Nila, Clyde and Vinicius, to bring happiness to the world. Because they are happy, has a spirit of strong enthusiasm, and resilience, which are capable of unifying and bonding everyone in the world together, as one.”

-Henry Tan, HRSMA Founder and Chairperson

Zabivaka has been chosen as the offical mascot of the Russian FIFA World Cup 2018 on 22/10/2016, and will thus be enlisted into HRSMA’s Actively Promoted Mascots to be further popularised. He would also be the Russian representative in HRSMA too.

Hey, why don’t we also invite Cat and Tiger(previous mascot candidates for the Russian FIFA World Cup 2018) to join as well? Also, do you like Zabivaka to be your dance teacher? What do you think?